Editorial comment: Awards play their role in recognition of social workers

It’s easy to be cynical about the New Year’s Honours List, with its opaque judging process and history of toadying. But we should get over it. Who else is going to recognise Moses’ work – the distinctively named charity worker from north London, who received an MBE – alongside that of Rod Stewart, Hugh Laurie and Steven Gerrard?

It’s great that lots of “normal” people in social care were recognised, when positive stories about the sector are few and far between in the press.

We have worked hard on our own Awards, lining up a judging panel of senior social care figures and using clear criteria around innovation, user involvement and evaluated impact.

There were more than 350 entries to the latest Community Care Awards, a really impressive shortlist and an excellent overall winner – Family Days, run by Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group in the North West. It’s now up to us to spread this best practice.

Social care is experiencing an unprecedented period of political interest and we need to capitalise on it. Stronger professional representation would help, but raising the profile of social care is a shared responsibility. We all need to gather our evidence on high performance and demonstrate its value to decision makers of all levels.